Composite building-block.



No. 856,176. Y PATENTED JUNE 4, 1907.

J. MUIR.

COMPOSITE BUILDING BLOCK.

APPLICATION FILED DEC. 5, 1904.

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J. MUIR.

COMPOSITE BUILDING BLOCK.

APPLICATION FILED D20. 5. 1904.

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PATENTED JUNE 4, 1907. J. MUIR. COMPOSITE BUILDING BLOCK.

APPLICATION FILED DEC. 5, 1904.

4 SHEETSSHBET 3.

No. 856,176. PATENTED JUNE 4, 1907.

' J. MUIR.

COMPOSITE BUILDING BLOCK.

APPLICATION FILED DBO. 5, 1904.

4 SHEETS-BEBE! 4.

'izivar''s I I j UNITED STATES JAMES MUIR, OF SPRINGFIELD, MASSACHUSETTS.

COMPOSITE BUILDING-BLOCK.

Specification of Letters Patent.

' Patented June 4, 1907.

Application filed December 5,1904. Serial No- 236,613.

To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that I, JAMES MUIR, a citizen of the United States of America, residing at Springfield, in the county of Hampden and State of Massachusetts, have invented new and useful Improvements in Composite Building-Blocks, of which the following is a specification.

This invention relates to the manufacture of composite building blocks.

The object of the present invention is to provide a construction which permits a far greater range'of adaptability and use than any of the constructions disclosed in the prior art, so far as I am aware, and the construction forming the subject matter of this application is rendered feasible commercially only by reason of the perfection of stone dressing machines whereby practically all of the work heretofore done by hand on blocks of building material used in stone construction may now be mechanically performed on relatively thin slabs of stone.

This invention therefore resides particularly in the construction of a building block having one or more of its faces provided with a veneered surface, the veneering material being anchored in a mass of concrete which constitutes the body of the block, the veneer constituting one or more of the sides of the mold in which the body of the block is formed.

A further object of this invention 1s to provide a composite building block having one side thereof faced with stone. or similar veneering material, and the 0p osite side faced with some finishing materia constituting a part of the plastic mass of which the body of the block-is made, whereby when a wall is laid up both sides will present finished surfaces. In this manner it is possible to construct blocks of large size made to the exact form required by the plans of a building, with great accuracy and at a great saving in cost; for example, it is possible to make the steps of a building having the sides constituting the tread and the riser covered with a stone veneer, the body being of concrete or some similar material which may be easily molded to the required shape and to which the facings of stone or other suitable veneer materialwill be securely attached not only by the anchors embedded in said material and se cured to the facings but by the adhesion of said material to the surface of the veneer in contact therewith, thereby producing pracmg a window-sill.

ticallya monolith at asmall part of the cost of a solid block.

In a construction of a block of this character, the slabs of stone constituting the riser and tread portions of a ste may be sawed out of a block of stone an dressed by machinery and put together in such a way as to make it indistinguishable from a solid stone block. This is cited merely as a simple illustration of a block made according to this invention.

Many other forms of building blocks showing the Wide range of adaptability of the invention will bedescribed farther on and are illustrated in the accompanying drawings, in which,

Figure 1 is a perspective view of a composite building block embodying this inventlon, a portion of the block being broken away to more clearly show the construction. Fig. 2 is a somewhat enlarged sectional view taken transversely through a block showing an anchor to secure a stone facing to the block. Fig. 3 illustrates, in perspective, a. step showing a block having two veneered surfaces, the anchors being shown indotted lines. Fig. 4 is a perspective view of a hollow block showing a veneered surface of stone on the one side and a finish coat of some plastic material applied to the opposite side of the block. Fig. 5 is a perspective view showing a block constit iting a part of a 0011'1106 illustrating the adaptability of this mode of construction to blocks to which the stone face has been applied to three surfacesthereof. F g. 6 1s a perspective view of a block construct on show- Fig. 7 is a similar vlew showing the construction of a water-table.

Fig. 8 is a perspective view of a portion of a cornice construction showing the adaptation of the construction to the production of ornamental effects, the parts constituting the stone facings of the blocks being of such sha e as to permit of the elimination of handwor lr in the production of these ornamented surfaces. Fig. 9 is a ers ective view of one of the facings of the loc shown in Fig. 8, and Fig. 10 is a similar View of the same block, these two blocks illustrating different steps in the machining rocess whereby the ornamental-effect is ro uced. Figs. 11, 12, 13, and 14 show di erent corner constructions whereby the meeting lines of the stone facing may be hidden.

In constructing the monolithic blocks forming the subject of this invention, the facing slabs are first sawed out anddressed by machiner the same being completely finished be ore being applied to the block; these facings in the various drawings may be plain flat slabs, such as are indicated by a and having holes drilled into the inner face thereof into which the ends of anchor-bolts c are inserted and retained by a setting of lead,

, sulfur, or similar material, the ends of the anchor-bolts being provided with cross-heads (Z in the usual manner.

In-making' a block, such as is shown in Figs. 1, 3, or 4 for example, the stone facing slabs a. and I) would be set up in their proper relative position, and then the body portlon e of the block would be formed by molding a suitable plastic material, such as concrete, onto these facings in a suitable mold in which the mass would be 7 ermitted to harden before being removed. 11 this manner,.blocks may be formed of any desired size or. shape, the anchor-bolts being so distributed as to hold the facings securely in osition and, incidentally, to strengthen the lock, the plastic material constituting the body portion e being of such a nature as to adhere to the inner surfaces of the slabs, the whole, when dry, constituting'practically a monolithic block having the strength of natural stone. This construction shows one of the sim ler forms of block which may be made. 11 making there blocks, it is obvious that where the nature thereof will permit they may be cored out, as atf Fig. 4, in which case the anchors would preferably extend through the solid ortions of the block, as shown in said figure in dotted lines.

Referring to Figs. 8, 9', and 10, a construction is shown'therein which represents a portion of a cornice, for exam 1e, which shows a block with the facings of t e two sides thereof so disposed as to permit the dentilatedportions 9 and the moldings h of one facing to be cut entirely by machinery before the.

two are placed together in the, mold, and the body portion 6 molded thereon. Fig. 9 shows one facing in which the molding h is first out leaving the upstanding edge from which the dentils g are formed, these being afterward'cutout by means of a suitable tool, the finished facing being as shown in-Fig; 10. This facing may then be set up ina mold and the cap 1' located at right angles thereto to overhang the dentilated portion to produce the ornamental effect shownin Fig. 8, the anchors 0 being attached to the facings. The body e of the block is then molded thereon, as described.

In Fig. 5 is shown a block constituting a part of a cornice construction which is still more intricate and which shows the adaptability of the invention-to another form of ornamentation. In this instance three of the surfaces of a block are provided with the facing of finishing material. The construction shown in this figure and that shown in Fig. 8 brings out most forcibly the very great economyin the use of this invention. In Fig. 5 it will be noted that the underside of the cornice which overhangs the wall and the outer edge and the upper side are all provided with facings, the outer edge being provided with a molding k and the under side being channeled as at m. It will be noted in this construction, as well as in Figs. 6, 7, and 8 that the meeting lines between two angu larly located facings may be so disposed that this line will be practically invisible; but, furthermore, the facings may be so disposed as to protect this meeting line against the entrance of-water therein, thereby protecting the construction against the disintegrating action of frost or the discoloring efiect of moisture. It will be observed, however, by an examination of Fig. 5 that the effect produced is achieved by the assemblage of pieces of facing each of which may be prepared and finished in a machine, and yet when these are put together and the block is completed by molding thereon the body ortion e of concrete, the meeting lines, as or example, the line 0 between the piece 7c and the cap 7) and the lines (1 between the inner edge or rear side of the molding piece k", and the facing piece 1', and between the latter and the finby being ocated in some angle of the ornamental design but are also so located as to be protected from-the intrusion of water. It has been found in practice that these blocks may be molded with as great accuracy as blocks of stone can be cut, and when they are put together in a building it is impossible to distinguish between the faced blocks and the solid without a very close examination by one skilled in such matters. It is well known that concrete, such as constitutes the body portion e of these blocks, may be made as enduring as stone, and were it not for the fact that it is impossible to imitate stone surface with this material, all of the various pieces shown in the drawings of this application might be molded from concrete doing away with the stone facing, except for the further fact that the surface of concrete blocks exposed to'the'atmosphere will, after a certain length of exposure, show surface cracks and checks which render it an unsuitable material for fine buildings, aside from its lack of artistic finish,

Referring to Figs. 11 to 14 inclusive, various ways are shown in which the construction of these composite blocks may be treated whereby the meeting lies between two abuttin edges will not disclose the fact that the blocis are veneered. In order to accomplish this, it is only necessary to rovide some ornamentation for the corner 1n some line of which the meeting line of the facings may be hidden to completely disguise from even a close observer the fact that the blocks are provided with veneered surfaces. only. As shown in Fig. 11 for example, the meeting lines between the facings a and I) would be alo the line t, and the meeting line between the acin s a and b in the next course of blocks be ow it would be along the linen, and so on. Each of the meeting lines t and 1) therefore would have its counterpart in the lines t and v, both lines, together with the corner line w producing an ornamental effect in which the meeting lines between the edges of the facings would be completely obscured.

In Fig. 12, the same result is produced by tooli the corner thus obscuring the location 0 the meetin between the facings a, and b, which meeting ine, however, as in Fig. 11 for the first course, would be alon the line a: and on thenext course along the l1ne y, and so on, alternating from one side of the corner to the other. In Fig. 13 a corner beading is shown whereby the same effect may be produced, and in Fig. 14 still another variation of the design is shown in which one line thereof will serve. to hide the meeting lines of the.

facings in the same manner. There is no part of the building, be it plain or ornamental, in which the invention may not be used to great advantage, save only in the erection of columns.

To more clearly illustrate the great economy which results in the use of this invention,

' it may be stated that a block of stone havin a thickness of twelve inches may be sawe upl to make elght or nme slabs of fac1 and w en an expenslve stone, such as mar le, 1s

view instead of being utilized in the way of facings and the body portion thereof be made of some equally strong but far cheaper material which may be molded easily into any desired shape.

I am aware that it is not broadly new to make a building block having a facing of veneer, such a block being shown in the patent to Derrom of February 6, 1872 No. 123,385. I am also aware that such facings have been applied to wooden walls as shown in the patent to Brower of June 27, 189$) No. 627,960, and I am aware that slabs of stone may be anchored to walls to constitute a facing.

Having thus described my invention, what I claim and desire to secure by Letters Patent of the United States, is

A building block comprising a facing of stone or the like for one or more sides thereof,

a body of concrete molded onto the back side of said facing and adherent thereto, said concrete body comprising a layer of finishing or surfacing plastic forming a part thereof, lo-

.cated on one or more of the sides of the block opposite the stone facings, the whole constituting, in its completed state, a monolithic 

